Earlier quoted context omitted.
Partisan politics is one hell of a drug
I don't know why so many companies feel compelled to needlessly take political stances. I think they can only lose from that. Although I have heard Nike earned billions with the Kaepernick campaigns, so maybe sometimes it does pay off. But for Mozilla? Do they get government funding?
Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony
221–230 of 675 posts
Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 1. In many ways Apple's anti-competitive behaviour on iOS/iPadOS is a blessing. It's one of the few things that keep Chromium's dominance in check. Of course, it's not great that Apple are stifling innovation like this, but consider the alternative: Chromium dominance on all platforms. I think it’s worth noting that (at least I believe) the reason apple limit the usage of other browser engines in iOS isn’t (mostly)…
> battery usage is the number one KPI people care about. I wish all phone manufacturers actually understood that /me glances at my Pixel 3XL with 3430 mAh batt
I switched to a used iPhone and was bummed my 8+ had a "small" ~2400mah battery compared to my Android phone, which was 3100. Then I actually started using it. Even though the Android phone had an OLED screen, it would absolutely melt the battery.
I have so little "battery charge anxiety" now it's not even funny. I don't even bother to charge it above 80-85% most of the time...and the battery life estimator says the battery is down to 82% capacity.
Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony
#223It's a depressing situation, particularly knowing that Firefox is pretty much kept alive at Google's whim. It makes one seriously wonder whether it is feasible at all to maintain an independent open-source web browser in 2021. People tend to blame Mozilla's management and I'm sure there have been management failures but I'm not sure what they could do to make Firefox a thriving, independent, sustainable browser. It s…
I have to strongly agree with your last point - I also never understood the massive hard-on that the technical user-base has against useful telemetry. Perhaps it's just the loud minority, but to me it seems that most of them have never worked on an user-facing product (for-profit or not). Yes, users can themselves explicitly communicate feedback regarding the product or its features, and no, most of them don't do tha…
People don't want to be spied on. Yes, you can find positive uses for it, but you can find positive uses for many negative technologies. If anything some of the most pervasive negative technologies also have positive uses to sweeten the pill (or even give the impression that this is a sweet and not a pill you are swallowing).
Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony
#224It's a depressing situation, particularly knowing that Firefox is pretty much kept alive at Google's whim. It makes one seriously wonder whether it is feasible at all to maintain an independent open-source web browser in 2021. People tend to blame Mozilla's management and I'm sure there have been management failures but I'm not sure what they could do to make Firefox a thriving, independent, sustainable browser. It s…
IMO they're in a good position where then can include deep-rooted privacy services on which they could (and already do in some) capitalize. for example Mozilla VPN and Firefox Relay which added a premium version with unlimited aliases and your own @*.mozmail.com subdomain. If they can find a way to promote themselves as a leader of Internet privacy with well-integrated servoces, and from which they can get a revenue…
I started using Relay recently and it seems useful. I'll subscribe. I hope they can get a few hundred thousand paying users there...
Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony
#225It's a depressing situation, particularly knowing that Firefox is pretty much kept alive at Google's whim. It makes one seriously wonder whether it is feasible at all to maintain an independent open-source web browser in 2021. People tend to blame Mozilla's management and I'm sure there have been management failures but I'm not sure what they could do to make Firefox a thriving, independent, sustainable browser. It s…
This is simply not so. Google pays to be the default search engine on Firefox because it is beneficial for them. Had they not, this place would be bought out by Bing or whoever else, and in the end Google will lose more.
Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony
#226The real problem of Firefox is one that nobody cares about: distribution. Let's say Firefox is the most advanced browser of the universe. How can you get people to install Firefox? Chrome has the advantage here because it is preinstalled in every Android phone and Android has more than 90% market share. The second advantage Chrome has is that it cannot be uninstalled from Android. The fact that Android phones have a…
To me some of the things you mention sound like anticompetitive practices from behalf of Google.
Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
it's not "just like Chrome". It's not great, but it's not in the same ballpark as what Google does.
Silently uploading your browsing activity off the device without your consent is absolutely in the same ballpark as what Google does.
Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony
#228I guess Safari is still their own. KDE Konqueror still their own. Sad that opera became chrome. Guess I'll be staying Brave for awhile.
Firefox's huge decline also makes sense to me. Firefox stopped building their browser ~5 years ago? It's not that Chromium is inherently just better, it's that Mozilla moved off of firefox. When you lose focus on firefox, you lag behind.
https://blog.mozilla.org/careers/mozilla-diversity-inclusion...
They are far more concerned with hiring women. They hired themselves a 'Culture Manager' and 'people managers' and 'diversity managers'. Note how these are not Rust Software developer manager, protocol developer manager.
https://blog.mozilla.org/careers/mozilla-introduces-gender-t...
Imagine how good firefox could be if they weren't so concerned with their staffing diversity and instead worked on their browser.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/
They are concerned about political activism, calling for people to be deplatformed, etc.
For that reason, firefox isn't even an alternative.